Places do Matter
by CatC10
Summary: Hinata and team 8 are all fighting enemy ninja when one uses a strange Justu to transport Hinata to a world not all unlike our own, only with super technologic advances. Hinata is now stuck there when the rest of team 8 is out looking for her in a world s
1. Default Chapter

Okay, I was hit with an idea for this fiction awhile back, so I guess that now I finally have an idea of where I want it to go. BEWARE: May become a songfic for a chapter or two later on.  
  
Hinata tried desperately to keep up with her teammates as they struggled to stay in control of their C-gone-A rank mission. "C RANK!!" Yelled Kiba, bleeding heavily from a kunai slash on his forearm, "Well it bloody isn't anymore!!"  
  
"Keep running, you...darn dog!!!" Shino huffed out between heaving breaths. Neither of their animal counterparts was of any use against the enemy they had no idea they were going to face.  
  
Hinata wondered briefly how their simple escort mission had gone so wrong. Their client was modest enough, just needing an escort to an unimportant village not far from Konoha, but apparently he forgot to mention that he was carrying some very valuable pieces of weaponry and jutsu scrolls on him, making him a prime target for major ninja criminals. Kurenai-sensei had tried her best to get her students out of harms way by distracting the enemy, giving the three explicit orders to return as fast as possible to Konoha and get help.  
  
Leading to their present situation. Running away, without their sensei, and quite possibly not having one anymore. "Maybe...we...should take a small break?" Hinata wheezed, slowing to a jog, before all but collapsing onto a fallen log in the path.  
  
"C'mon, Hinata! Konoha is only a little farther, we can make it in maybe five minutes." Shino said, breathing hard before hissing in pain.  
  
"Y-you're hurt!" Hinata cried, "Is it from that punch you took for me?" she asked worriedly, attempting to step forward and check his wound.  
  
She never made it past her third step toward him.  
  
"Sunpou no jutsu!!" Hinata spun around just in time to see a tidal wave of black electric current cutting though the air engulf her in its inky depths.  
  
"HINATA!!"  
  
Hinata was floating groggily in unfathomable space. It was like she was wrapped in the navy black of the frozen midnight sky. She was so cold, and so warm. Half delirious, she drifted in the strange place without gravity, content to let her pains fade in the darkness. But, a flickering pink/gray light, growing by the moment, rudely interrupted her bout of nothing. Only just realizing what it was going to do, Hinata had no time to try to escape it's suction, and next she knew, the void of space was gone, and she was somewhere else entirely.  
  
That's the prologue. Confused as to what sunpou may mean? Well, it's not exact, I suppose, I used an electronic translator, but it's meant to mean dimension. If that gives you any clues as to what's happened to poor Hinata-chan. I guess you'll find out next chapter, ne? 


	2. Hospital

I'm lame so I'm actually already continuing. Besides, I already got a review, (Can you imagine my shock?)  
  
Hinata awoke in a dry narrow alley with tall brick walls reaching far above her bowed head. By the sun it was either late morning or early afternoon, and the sound of large rumbling machines passed by every few seconds. "W-w-where am I? Ki-k-kiba-kun? Shi-shino-kun? Are you guys here?" She called softly into the area, slowly leaning forward to see beyond a dumpster not far from where she sat. There was a sharp pain in the back of her head, and she gave a quiet hiss as she reached toward the back of her head and felt something slick yet sticky there. 'I must have bashed it on the way here, wherever here is.' she thought, oddly calm.  
  
Standing carefully, and bracing herself on the wall incase she was concussed, she dusted her jacket and shorts with hands so shaky they were vibrating, carefully making sure her shuriken and kunai were well hidden. Looking around in the shady area again she looked around another dumpster to see what exactly was making the loud noises.  
  
"WAH!!!!" Hinata screamed, jumping backward in fright of the massive metal boxes that gleamed in sunlight, hurtling down the extremely well paved road at incredible speeds. Landing ungracefully on her bottom she backed away from the entrance to the ally, scooting along until she hit the wall behind her. Beside her she head a loud creaking noise, and her head snapped around.  
  
"What's goin' on back here?! I warn you! I can kick your butts in no time flat! C'mon! Oh, hey! Who're you, chick? You don't look like a hobo or nothin'..." Said a girl, standing in a green doorway leading to the inside of the ally wall. "I was just working my shift and heard a scream, usually that means some idiot decided to sleep here the night! Sorry for yelling." And with a nervous laugh the girl placed a hand behind her head, tangling fingers in mouse brown hair that fell in slight tangles halfway down her back. When she opened her eyes from her nervous squint, she looked at the stranger in her boss's ally.  
  
Short-cropped black hair, yellow jacket that looked like it'd just gotten out of a tight synch, but may be very pretty if washed, gray shorts that reached just below the knee, and odd sandals that didn't cover the toes. Wide, white eyes.  
  
'Wow, I think she's blind. AND OH!! SHE'S BLEEDING!!'  
  
"Are you alright? Did someone attack you? Is that why you were yelling? Can you see? Are you blind?" A flood of questions came pouring from the girl's mouth as she hovered over the stranger, bleeding from the back of the head. 'Oh no, whatdoIdo? WhatdoIdo? I gotta call somebody; I gotta get her some help! Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez!!'  
  
Meanwhile Hinata looked at the girl in a green apron with glazed eyes. She knew roughly what the girl was saying, English was a common trading language, and Hyuugas in particular were expected by the head of the clan to know it, but Hinata had no idea where she was, the strange metal monsters on the street were the final hit to her mind saying, none too quietly, YOU ARE NOT AT HOME, HINATA.  
  
Vaguely she realized she was going into shock, but at the moment she really couldn't think clearly to focus on how to stay conscious, so she just looked at the girl who was now saying something about phones and to stay put for a few minutes. Ambulance? Okay Hinata knew what the medical cart was, she could handle that...  
  
Then, a loud siren was heard quickly approaching their vicinity. Hinata clapped her hands over her ears and began to scream as its loud wail pierced her eardrums and made her brain thrum with pain. The working girl was shocked, and immediately attempted to calm the hysterical dark haired girl. "Over here!! In this ally!" The brunette cried out to the street, and with a screech the screaming machine halted and medics in brilliant white and blues rushed out of its back compartment.  
  
Hinata felt their arms around her, just as she passed out.  
  
Hinata woke in the ambulance, sirens muted by layers of plastic and metal. Blurry figures rose into her vision as the paramedics rushed her to the hospital. One of the faceless men began to speak to her, "...Darlin'.... Stay....'Wake...Don't. ...Sleep." Were some of the few words she could hear though the thrumming in her ears. Where were her teammates? What happened to her sensei? Was she all alone?  
  
Maddie remembered the ride to the hospital very well. The mousy small girl was wringing her hands into her shop apron all the way there. She'd only been at work for an hour and a half when she'd heard a scream out back in the alleyway behind the corner store she worked the register at. Of course, against all policy she ran out back immediately to deal with whichever hobo was trying to sneak around back there, again. So she was very surprised indeed when it was just a small girl around thirteen or fourteen sitting against the wall, shaking like a small leaf only just able to stay on the tree in frigid fall winds.  
  
She had laughed embarrassed, right before realizing that the girl was bleeding, was probably blind, and obviously scared out of her wits. Then the girl had started zoning out, and Maddie'd finally called 911.  
  
The entire ride had been tense, waiting, hoping really, that the girl would wake. When she finally did, one of the male medics kept her awake for the rest of the ride, but in the middle of one of his sentences, she just began to cry. Silent tears that crept down her cheeks like flawless pearls, the medic then saw her milky crème colored eyes. Startled, he shouted to the driver that she was blind.  
  
Then they were there, at the hospital.  
  
Maddie strode next to the doctor as he pushed the cart the girl, again unconscious, was on into a room. "You and your friend are lucky, miss. The hospital hasn't been so empty in a long while. As long as she has a way to pay, we can have her out and about as soon as she wakes up."  
  
Maddie choked for a moment. Then resolve hit her features. "She's not my friend, Doctor..." Maddie glanced at the doctor's nametag, pitifully at her eyelevel, "Guerra. I found her in the ally behind where I work. As for payment, I'm paying for her. Here's my credit card, where's the magnetic strip?" She said, whipping out her visa and pointing at the door to the room.  
  
"You don't know her?" He asked, blatantly surprised.  
  
"No. I have no idea who she is! But she's blind, and her head is bleeding. I'll pay for her bills, so stop asking questions and fix her!" She growled. The doctor sighed and pointed at the door.  
  
"Turn right at the door, follow the signs to the desk. Tell the registrar that you're paying for the blind ambulance girl. She'll take your card. Now I have work to do."  
  
With a huff, Maddie stalked out of the room, fist clenched and mind whirring over the oddity her life has thrown her way. She paid quickly, and then sat down outside the girl's door to wait, first for her parents, then for the girl to wake up.  
  
Yeah. That's where it ends for now. I'll have more later, I suppose. I'll also say now that it doesn't look like the chapters are going to be very long, so I'll try to update often. K? Oh, and about the world Hinata is now it: It's a lot like the world we live in today, only technology is far beyond what we have now. You know, like holograms are very common, but so is a regular car. Yeah. Screwy, but oh well, JA!  
  
ME 


	3. Policeman

I got inspiration. Whoopee.

Hinata felt that she could hear the creaking of her eyelids as her milky eyes opened. Squinting, she could make out that the room she was in was obviously an hospital, with a TV hanging on the wall across from the pristine bed she was laying in, a small bedside table next to her, and a curtain separating her from another patient (who was snoring, very loudly.)

There was a slight commotion outside the door, to what she could only assume was the hallway outside, and three people pushed past a nurse doing her best not to let the trio disturb the patients within. Hinata blinked at them, wondering if they knew the second patient of the room, if so, they were being awful rude, not letting them sleep.

The first, a girl with mousy brown hair, in an overly large t-shirt, black jeans, and worn brown combat boots saw Hinata and squeaked happily. "You're awake!" she cried, leaping forward, and tripping over her own foot, falling onto her face. The two older members of the trio sighed in defeat, the eldest, a man, helping her to her feet while she mumbled darkly under her breath.

"Err, sorry about that, miss. Sometimes Maddie can't keep herself upright." He said, his voice betraying a gentle, but playful nature. Hinata looked him over once using the limited Byakugan ability provided without chakra. Polo shirt and khaki pants. Loafers. Interesting. Then the older woman spoke.

"Excuse my husband, miss. He doesn't know how to introduce himself." The woman was dressed in a plum colored suit, high heels, and mousy-brown hair the same shade as that of the girl twisted up into a bun on the back of her head. "I'm Mrs. Dwight. This is my husband, Darrel Dwight, and my daughter Maddie Dwight, who I'm proud to say was the one to call an ambulance for you." She said, gesturing to herself, the man, and the girl, still rubbing her cheek, in turn.

"Yeah! You've been out for a week! You must have hit your head pretty bad." Said Maddie, leaning forward over the bed to goggle at Hinata's eyes. "Are you really blind, or are they some kinda contact?" She asked.

"MADDIE!" Cried Mrs. Dwight, "Don't be so rude!" Pulling Maddie from the girl and admonishing her with a finger.

"MOM! I'm only asking!"

"It's still rude to be so forward about it!"

Maddie and her mother growled at each other with differing levels of coldness. It wasn't unusual for the pair to spar verbally. Wherever they just so happened to be at when an urge to bicker announced itself. Mrs. Dwight with the cold shoulder that could freeze most teenage men in their tracks, and Maddie with fire spitting from her lips and onto unsuspecting company.

In their state of loving family warfare, neither noticed Mr. Dwight stepping carefully up to the girl, and taking her hand. "Hello, sweetie, how are you?" He asked quietly, doing his best to look as non-threatening as possible. Not hard, with his wife and daughter bantering behind him.

"I-I-I'm f-f-f-fi-fine." The girl stuttered out. Mr. Dwight gave the girl a billion dollar smile.

"And what's your name?" He asked.

"H-Hyuuga Hi-Hi-Hinata."

"Your name is Hyuuga?" He asked, bewildered. It must have shown on his face because she immediately shook her head in the negative and said her name again. This time given name first.

"Where do you live, Hinata?"

"K-K-Ko-Konoha." She said, wincing at her stuttering syllables.

"And what country is that in, Hinata?" Mr. Dwight asked, confused. It sounded foreign. Very foreign.

Hinata gaped at him a moment before asking her own question. "What country is THIS?"

"The United States of America, Hinata, why?" Her eyes widen and then she began to mumble to herself in hushed but frantic whispers. Seemingly oblivious, she rocks back and forth in shallow movements, and Mr. Dwight suddenly realizes that she knew that she did not belong here, "Hinata? What country were you in before you were found in the convenient store's alley?"

That question sure shut up his wife and daughter.

Hinata had no idea where this country was. She was a Hyuuga, and being such had given her one of the best non-ninja educations offered in Konoha, and she had no idea where this country was. 'What should I do? Where should I say I'm from? I don't know any countries in this world! If it really is another world...What was that jutsu that enemy nin used on me? And what was that thing, speeding past on the road? Not time to wonder that! Look back to your training! When in doubt...'

Hinata looked back into her memories, trying to find a mention of anything even a little like this situation to draw a conclusion from. A picture of Naruto came to mind. He had been busted for a prank, and Iruka-sensei had gotten into a yelling match with the boy...

"I know you, Uzumaki! I know you did it!" Shouted Iruka.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Naruto Screamed back.

That was it! She knew what to do! When in doubt, play dumb! She'd been hit on the head as well, this could be used to her advantage!

"Mr. Dwight? I d-don't r-re-remember. I'm th-thinking and thinking, and I-I d-don't r-remember...I can't even th-think up the m-maps to say where it c-c-could be or what it c-c-could be c-called. I d-don't th-th-think I w-was here b-b-before, b-but m-maybe I just m-moved here? I d-d-don't know." She said, pushing her fingers together, praying to any and all gods her nervousness around people would do some good in making her story believable.

Mr. Dwight raised his light brown eyebrows in surprise; the knock on the head must have given her amnesia. "What do you remember?"

"A-all I kn-know for s-sure is m-m-my n-name. I g-get a bad f-f-feeling when I t-try to r-r-re-remember my parents, I d-don't think I-I l-l-liked them much, a-and th-then m-m-my c-c-cousin N-Neji, I r-r-re-remember his v-voice! He's...s-s-sc-screaming at m-m-me. A-and I'm sorry, but that's all!" She squeaks.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she hunches her shoulders and begins to cry in earnest. What had happened? Where her team mates okay? What had happened to Kurenai-sensei? Did she make it out unharmed?

"Oh, no. Don't cry!" Said Maddie, stepping forward and wrapping up Hinata in a warm hug, smothering all the love she could give the girl in it, "We'll make sure you turn out all right, we'll help you out, don't worry, don't cry..." and as his daughter did her best to comfort the girl, Darrel motioned to his wife, Marie, to come with him outside the room. She nodded to him, and both exited quickly, staying quiet as if the girl needed them to be.

Outside, a stout and strong looking police officer was waiting. Mr. Dwight turned to him and began with Hinata's name.

"Officer Harris, We found out her name was Hinata Hyuuga. But unfortunately that's pretty much all there is to know. She apparently doesn't remember much, she doesn't even know the names of countries or the looks of maps, and from how she referred to what she could remember of her family, it doesn't seem like the best idea if we let her go back to them at all. She stutters, too. And she may be blind." The officer nodded.

"Thanks a lot, Mr. Dwight, I appreciate it. We can search for her file as long as we have her name, by any chance does she remember any of her family member's names? Or where she's from?"

"A cousin named Neji, and no, she doesn't remember, though she has an slight accent when speaking. It's hard to pick out through her stuttering." He said.

The officer nodded once more and pivoted around presumably on his way to leave and look up that name—Hyuuga. But Mrs. Dwight lurched forward suddenly; her plum colored heels making it difficult, and asked, "What if you can't find her file?"

Officer Harris jerked suddenly, and turned around to face Mrs. Dwight, a troubled expression on his face. "That sort of thing has never happened before, Mrs. Dwight, and if it does, well. I suppose we'll have to put her in an orphanage or foster care or something until she remembers more or until she's adopted."

"She's too fragile for that!" Said Mr. Dwight, leaning forward a bit. "She'd be crushed in the wheels of society as we know it! Kids in foster care usually have enough problems when they actually remember who they are!"

"Well will you take her? The only female CEO of Cartoon Ink. And a psychologist should easily be able to pay for more than one child. If you take her, than no one has to worry about anything except for where to sign." Said Harris, blandly. "I mean, it's not like you already aren't carrying her tab."

Just as he was going to walk away, again, he heard Mrs. Dwight's soft alto voice say, "Okay, we'd be happy to."

Yeah, that's as far as this part goes. If anyone has any suggestions for what to happen to Hinata, or has any idea how the whole adoption process goes about: please e-mail me. My e-mail is in my profile, and I'd be happy to hear from you!

ME


	4. Home

Just because I'm bored and I really need to be working on something while I'm waiting for Corrupted-Innocent to finish with some of our calculations. (Corrupted-Innocent is another author here who happens to be my friend from school...)

(Let's see if THIS one works!)

Hinata hesitantly entered her new home a month later, staring in wonder at all the new things that she'd never seen before. Soon after seeing the many glittering boxes everywhere that could show moving pictures, and flying metal birds that supposedly carried people, and the monster 'cars' (as Maddie called them), she was thoroughly humbled as a shinobi of the leaf. Shinobi had advanced mathematics, but to figure out how to make any of this work at all, jutsu or no, must have taken a great deal of genius. Shikamaru might have liked it here.

During her first 'car' ride, that took her to her new house with the Dwights, she spent the entire time with her nose pressed flat against the tinted glass window, staring at the skyscrapers of the downtown area claw with reaching fingers into the sky, hovering neon lit signs proclaim vending machines and arcades, gigantic televisions showing commercials and news placed onto entire sides of buildings.

And now she was at her house. The foyer was large and mostly white marble, with gold accents and plush khaki carpet. A staircase ran up to the second floor with a pale wood banister, and pictures lined the wall it was on. Chronicling the life of one, Maddie Dwight, the pictures gave Hinata a small feeling of comfort. 'They must really love their daughter,' she briefly thought. Branched to the right was a living room, with what looked to Hinata to be a wild man's décor, but was really an African Native motif. The room to the left was apparently some sort of dinning room done up with dark woods and jewel tones. Hanging fabric put some softness on the walls, as the floor was a dark blue tile. Beyond the foyer was the entrance to another room that Hinata could not see clearly, but it looked very open and light from where she was standing.

"Hey, Hinata! Come on this way, I get to show you where to put your stuff!" cried Maddie, today with her hair in two high pigtails, a tight pink t-shirt with the slogan 'I see crazy folk' on it, and a different pair of black pants, lined in a matching pink trim. Hinata bowed for what seemed to be the five hundredth time.

"Th-thank you!" she stuttered softly. "I really appreciate your h-hospitality, I don't know w-what I would have done had you all not b-been so kind—"She was about to ramble more, but was shushed by Mr. Dwight.

"Hinata, really, we've adopted you, now. How you came to be with no file is a mystery, but it happened. Now, you seem like an awfully nice girl, and until you prove that wrong then you will always, always, be welcomed here as home. I've watched you a lot this past month, and you are radiant!"

Mrs. Dwight and Maddie sighed turned toward Hinata. "Don't worry, sweetie, he's like that to any female who shows him any interest in martial arts." Said Mrs. Dwight. "How'd you think I got him married to me?" Hinata gaped for a brief second, staring at the woman before remembering that they, as in the Dwights and all official authorities, believed her to be blind as an old man with cataracts.

"Yeah, good ol' Mom kicked his butt in their Judo class way back when, and then next thing she knows, he's asking her out! The rest is history," said the bubbly girl. "Now come on so I can show you your room!! There are some stairs here," Maddie said, guiding her hand to the railing, "I'll tell you how many steps are to the top!" And Maddie raced up and began encouraging her to the top. Hinata laughed a little, before stifling it and beginning her way up.

Her room was upstairs, to the left, third door on the right. When she entered with Maddie, who carried her small duffle bag of clothes, donated by the hospital, she found that she liked it. She didn't love it by any stretch, it looked sterile and un-lived in, but it was pleasant enough with light blue walls and white lace curtains, pretty pale wooded furniture, and linins that matched the walls. She ran her hand across the walls to 'explore' what Maddie thought she couldn't see, and slowly made her way around the room, first to the (empty) desk, then to the (military fit) bed, to a small (blank) bedside table, and lastly to a cool window with a small table with (unfilled) picture frames on it, under it. She could sense Maddie blush as she caressed the picture frames. To avoid the other girl's discomfort, she quickly moved on.

To a closet door.

She entered curiously, expecting a small confined, yet empty space. YEAH. NOT. It was enormous!! Barely managing to cover her gasp, she stepped into the huge filled closet. Maddie spoke up, "Uh, yeah...We guessed your size and my parents let me pick out some clothes for you...Some of them are kinda wild, though, so you may not want to wear them, a few actually match some things of mine, mostly. Some colors are different. UH! I mean, the colors are...yeah. Sorry..."

"It's a-alright. I used to be able to see...I can imagine colors still. You just have to describe it to m-me, is all." She pushed the tips of her fingers together for a moment, before adding, "T-thank you again, I really..."

Maddie blanched and waved her arms wildly as if she thought Hinata really could see them, "Stop it!! We're being nice people! You're my sister now, legal-like! Stop acting as though parents giving their child shelter is some sort of grand gift!" Hinata blinked in Maddie's general direction.

"Something tells me that that's how it was, for me, before." She said. Now Maddie blinked.

"GIRLS!! DINNER!!" came Mrs. Dwight's shout from below. Maddie grinned as Hinata twisted her head a bit.

"C'mon!"

Hinata forced her hands to stay still as Mr. Dwight served her her food to her telling her quietly what he was placing on her plate. She was so used to serving her family their food herself, then placing the food on her own plate, as was traditional. Here, even while Mr. Dwight served her, the other two women at the table were filling their plates up high with supper. Then they all sat back to eat.

For a long while no one spoke and there was only the sound of utencils and the chewing of food. Then Mrs. Dwight spoke up.

"Maddie, what do you think of a party?"

"What for, Mom?" Asked Maddie. Really it sounded more like 'Wah-furuh-Mah?' because of the food she was still chewing. Hinata repressed a grimace.

"Honestly! Chew with you mouth closed!" Admonished her mother.

Maddie swallowed loudly, "But you asked me a question!"

"That's not a reason not to wait to speak! The party would be to introduce Hinata to some of the kids from your school so that she can have at least one friend to find when she enters! And she can meet a few of your friends so that she knows who they are! THINK FOR A MOMENT. It should have been obvious." Mrs. Dwight said, turning to her daughter.

"That sounds like a fabulous idea! Hinata, what do you think?" Said Mr. Dwight, hoping to avoid a shouting match.

Hinata was so startled she dropped her fork ungracefully onto the carpet. No one asked her how she thought of an idea, at least, when they did, they didn't really stop talking so she could answer, and here Mr. Dwight was, asking how she would feel over a party for _her_? "Uh...I don't w-want to be too much trouble, I mean, you're taking me in and being so nice and all..." Boy, she hoped they didn't find out what a horrible ninja she was...they might decide they don't like her if they found out she couldn't defend herself.

"Oh no way! It's not troublesome at all!" Said Maddie, losing the tenseness around her eyes that came with being mad at her mother, "In fact, it's a fantastic idea! We can even play some songs for you! I'm in a band, see?"

Hinata blinked at her new sister's direction. Then smiled gently.

"I would appreciate it very much. Thank you."

BOO YAH! Another chapter done! Anyone out there want to be a beta? I really need someone to bounce ideas off of! I have a few things I know I want to happen, but I really need some more ideas. I want this fic to NOT just skip over all those fun details that I'll otherwise just smooth over in a giant flashback, if possible. If you're interested, review me including an e-mail address, and I'll get to you. Otherwise, if you have an idea for what can happen to Hinata, feel free to tell me about it!

ME


	5. Konoha

I am so sorry about the lack of updates!!! My computer decided to breakdown on me for the past month. (No lie, four, maybe five weeks computerless!) So here's a much longer, hopefully, chapter!

In front of Konoha gates:

Kiba shuffled into the large village gates that loomed above the surrounding grass and forestland in a dazed stupor, eyes staring blankly forward as though he was in a deep hypnosis. Kurenai-sensei stumbled in just before him, and Shino took his first stiff steps back into their home in a similar state. In the abandoned plaza area beyond, was Neji, stiff backed and waiting for them, arms crossed across his chest in a most haughty manner, frowning deeply. "Did you send Hinata-san ahead of you? If so, she has not returned. Hyuuga wishes to speak to her of her tardiness." Neji said smoothly, blinking his eyes slowly.

The simple words were enough to break the stifling silence that had descended on the group after failing the mission, only marginal success being made in keeping the scroll the thieves wanted most of all. Kiba raised his head and eyes as one and locked slit eyes to milk white ones. The sudden focus in eyes that had previously been so blank startled Neji, Looking among the group, their surprised off guard faces and unspeaking mouths began an unsettling drop in his stomach, and he choked a sentence past the knot in his throat. "Where's Hinata-san?"

Shino moved first, he pulled a pale hand to his circular shades and pulled them off his face. "We...we're not sure."

At the Hyuuga residence:

They sat in a large traditional room with woven bamboo matting, and rice paper sliding doors that made the place look amazingly frail. The room was sparkly decorated even though, with a few tall ferns in one corner, and sconces providing light to a room that was getting darker in the setting sun. Hiashi Hyuuga kneeled at the far end of the room, facing Kurenai, who kneeled also. On either side of the sensei was the remaining members of cell eight.

Neji stood stiffly to the right of the sliding door and did his best to keep a level face as Kurenai did her best to explain to Hiashi the whereabouts of his daughter.

"From what Kiba and Shino have been able to tell me, enemy nin surprised the group from behind while I was distracted with another group. They ran for a while, but when one of the nin threw an unknown jutsu, they dodged, Hinata didn't. Shino described it as a shadow wall rushing forward and swallowing her, both remember the attacking nin call it 'dimension no jutsu'; From that, the closest thing we can guess is that she was transported somewhere. Unfortunately, exactly where is unknown to us."

Hiashi's face was gray and grim throughout the explanation. "And of the mission?" He asked, stiffer than Neji would have given him credit for.

"Failed, the merchant was killed in the fight, fell into a trap set by the enemy. The only thing worthy of note other than Hinata's disappearance was that the enemy nin's main objective was not obtained."

The prolonged silence in the tense room was growing longer by the moment, neither party very sure of the grounds on which the conversation could continue, when a loud thumping approached from the hallway beyond the secondary door behind Hiashi. Shattering the near calm, Hiashi's young wife burst through in a disheveled and slightly rumpled looking lavender night-kimono, and looked about a few moments, locking Kurenai-sensei in her sights.

She leapt for the kill.

"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER, YOU WITCH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER? WHERE IS SHE? Where...Where is she?" she screamed, immediately being grabbed by two attendants in plain dress begging Hiashi's forgiveness even as they pulled the hysterically sobbing woman from the room and slid the paper door shut once more. Her angry shouts interrupted briefly by new bouts of sobs were heard for a few seconds more as the attendants took her down the hall, before they faded out of earshot at the faint sound of another door sliding closed.

Kurenai-sensei's normally dark rose complexion had gone to a sick ghostly pallor when the woman had barged in and started screaming, and now a shamed flush painted her cheeks from her neck to her ears, raising her eyes only up to Hiashi's nose. Her lips were bleeding white they were so tightly compressed, and she sat tensely poised, waiting to hear what Hiashi would rule.

"We will wait one year." Hiashi said at last. If a year passes and Hinata is not found, Hinabi will become the new Heiress, and Hinata pronounced dead." His voice only wavered once: on the word dead.

Neji started, it was a day for many shocks. 'One year? That's hardly enough time to find her!' Neji thought, appalled. Just as Neji was about to lurch forward to voice his complaint, Hiashi continued. "In the meantime a team of Hyuugas will be sent out to find her, three months searching in each cardinal direction, either until the year is up, or she is found."

Neji relaxed some, but left the room to quietly collect his thoughts and get his facial features under control. If he could only convince Hyuuga to place him into the search team! That was the only way to ensure they did their best to find fragile Hinata-chan! Neji knew that not many Hyuuga were proud to have such a gentle girl as the heir to the clan, now was an opportune moment to get her out of the picture. 'There's no way in hell I'll let them half ass this!' Neji mentally mused.

He had to be on the search team!

The Inuzuka apartment:

Kiba lay back in his beige bed, he had wanted a navy bed spread, but after his mother pointed out that Akamaru would lounge there just as much as he, he decided on a hue much closer to the dog's own fur color. Akamaru himself was whining somewhere near Kiba's sock covered feet. How'd he let such a thing happen? He'd sworn to himself that he'd never let delicate, beautiful Hinata get hurt on a mission! 'Where is she?' he asked himself, a lump lodging in his throat. He'd watched her from afar for years, loved her short hair and soft eyes. Her voice didn't hurt his ears like so many girls, and he used to sit behind her in the academy just to smell her. Like lavender and rain, he always thought.

Then that sick black thing had eaten her whole and now she was gone.

Somehow the fact that he may never see his beautiful Hinata-chan again hit Kiba home, and something inside of him had it's fissures of doubt ripped open, and he broke down. "YEARG!! AHh" He screamed, throwing his fists into his tangled brown knots of hair, hollered to the ceiling. Pounding his fists down onto his mattress again, Kiba howled out his pains.

Thumping outside the door didn't halt Kiba's tirade; his parents threw open the door, and upon seeing his state, his mother ran to him ad he clung to her, as would a newborn pup. She rocked him as he cried out his woes and the story behind them, and oh god how much he liked her, maybe even loved her, and he cried 'til he slept, still weeping in his mother's embrace. Kiba's mother lay him down gently, and her husband let her away, stopping only once to look back at her heartbroken son.


	6. Party

If there are any inconsistencies in my writing, please tell me so I can fix it! Heck, if something doesn't make enough sense or sounds strange tell me! Everything is a work in progress, and can never be finished unless you're dead!

On with the fic! Places do matter!

In Hinata's new mansion home

Hinata was led around the mansion complex by Maddie's hand. "C'mon, Hinata! I have an outfit I'm a little too big for, but I think it'll fit you, it's really cute, I promise! You don't mind skirts do you" Hinata found herself chuckling at Maddie's half-mad exuberance. It almost felt the way she always wanted to feel with Hinabi…almost like she had a sister, one's who laughter could infect the worst frown-case and make it turn for the better.

It was also strange, feigning blindness was a little odd, back in Konoha if someone was the Hyuuga eyes they immediately knew she saw everything. A sharp tug nearly throwing her forward, Hinata continued up some stairs and to her new room where a black and lavender skirt and shirt were laid out. Maddie giggled, I already laid it out on the bed when you were in the shower, by the way. I'll help you get dressed we only have an hour or so until the party, you know. KYA! I swear Hina, it's like I have a sister and a doll all at once! I love it!"

Hinata, who'd been fingering the skirt's black-lace trim, started a bit.

"S-sister? M-me?" she asked, trembling.

"Well, sure, think about it. My parents adopted you, so you're my sis at least in law." Maddie mused, rubbing her chin comically as though Hinata could see it.

"But…I thought," said Hinata pushing her fingertips together, "That sisters, um, they sh-shared secrets, and hung out t-together. And you know, things." Getting more nervous by the second Hinata began to fidget with the hem of the skirt.

"Is that all?" muttered Maddie, "Well, I'm new at this, so we'll just have to figure it out together. Won't we, Hina?" Picking up the shirt Hinata hadn't yet touched, Maddie held it up to Hinata, "Yep, should fit just right!"

-Later that night-

Once the party had gotten crowded Hinata was finally ready to step down the stairs. 'A fairytale entrance' Maddie called it, though Hinata could only vaguely grasp the meaning of what a fairytale was. A folk legend was the closest she could come to, really. Straightening the shirt and tugging it down a little to cover a pale, exposed midriff, she waited for her 'cue', whatever that word meant.

"Okay, folks," came Mr. Dwight's call. "You all know this party is being thrown for a reason, and here she is!" Ah, there it was. Slipping on the slim pair of dark glasses, the other ones were too 'bulky and hid too much of the face' for Maddie's tastes, she stepped out of the top of the staircase and started her decent.

Mr. Dwight continued once she was halfway down, "This is Hinata, our newly adopted daughter. She's kind, and a tad shy, and yes, she's wearing those because she's blind. Yes Kevin, blind. Welcome, Hinata!" Hinata completed her decent to applause. Blushing brightly, she waited for Maddie to step forward and begin introducing her to people. Then reminding herself that she was 'blind' and that introductions meant touching faces of the guests, she blushed brighter. Just on the verge of her finger-pushing nervous habit, Maddie showed up and all but dragged her away to another room where the party was gaining speed quickly.

"This is Gene, Hina," Maddie said, setting Hinata's hands on the face of a stubborn-looking girl with short hair and long dress.

"Err, Hi." They both said. Loud thumps sounded behind them and Maddie shrieked.

"Don't you dare, Kevin!" Kevin stilled, inches away from a cringing Maddie, obviously ready to leap onto her back. One of her eyes cracked open, looked around a little, before she straightened, lifted one fist high above her head and…SMACK! "You lunatic!" she shouted, dashing after him as he ran away, cackling all the way.

"Don't worry about that, it's pretty normal, sadly." Said another boy sitting next to Gene. He had green hair. It commanded Hinata's attention for a moment, before she shook it off. "Hey, I'm Gary, Gene here is my cousin." gently, one of his pink-painted hands pulled one of her hands to his face.

"H-hi."

"You look pretty in lavender." He said.

"Th-thanks."

'Oh, wow. He's prettier than Ino!' Thought Hinata. She traced his face a little, praying that the half-darkness of the party lighting at least shadowed her blush. Then her thumb slipped into something sticky.

"Oh! You wear lip-stuff?" she asked.

"Lip-stuff? Yeah, Lip-gloss, don't you?"

"Only what Maddie puts on me."

"Ah, well it looks good. Do you want to hear us—" Gary was drowned out a moment as a screaming Kevin and murderous Maddie scrambled over the couch.

"As I was saying! Do you want to hear us play, now?"

"Play, as in in-instruments?"

"Sure! Gary, Kevin, Maddie, and I made a band years ago!" said Gene. Hinata remembered the stringed instruments that traveling minstrels played at Hinabi's fifth birthday party.

"I'd like that." Hinata whispered. Gary and Gene grinned.

Twenty minuets later Hinata was seated inform of a tangle of wires, facing a band she had not quiet expected.

"One, two, one two three four!" started Gene on drums. Music flowed from the metal 'amplifiers' set up to either side. It was rough, loud, and, for some strange reason, appealing to the quiet ninja girl. Hinata bobbed her head to the worlds tune and found herself thinking words of her own, with a few bumps and bad lines, of course. Hinata found she was disappointed when the song ended, only to be overjoyed at the beginning of the next.

After another four songs, Maddie pulled the microphone up from where it was poised at her guitar's level, "Okay, folks, that's it for us tonight, but the party lasts until midnight!" Maddie set her guitar down and pranced to Hinata. "How did you like it, Hina?"

"Amazing! I loved it!" Hinata exclaimed. The band seemed pleased, and began to put away their equipment as the stereo system took over music-making once more.

Mr. Dwight took Hinata's hand and led her out to the designated dancing area and Hinata laughed out loud as he began to swing her around. "You know how to swing dance, Hinata?" He asked over the reverberating music.

Hinata smiled lightly, "Apparently!" she called back.

-Later-

At half-past two in the morning, Hinata sat on Maddie's bed, facing Maddie, who was still dancing around her room watering some scattered flowers, among which the begonias were dying. "So, meet anyone you like, most were friends of mine or people I talk to." Maddie inquired. She set down the small watering can and picked up a spray bottle labeled, strangely, H2O. "Hope you don't mind, at least for sure you'll meet someone at school, you start next week. Well?"

Hinata scooted around a tad on the royal blue bedspread before laying down. " I like that Kevin fellow."

"Guy."

"Guy?"

"Yeah, a fellow is someone old, usually. A guy is someone your age."

"Oh, okay," said Hinata getting used to small language lessons that Maddie enjoyed giving her. "I like that Kevin guy. He's a little…crazy. I think the word is, but he's very funny. I don't even know how to describe Gary, he's…wonderful. So gentlemanly and kind and, what's wrong?"

Hinata had sensed Maddie stiffen and stifle laughter. "Nothing!" she managed to choke out.

"What?" asked Hinata, sitting up.

"It's just, there's no way he'd go out with you!" Maddie said and burst out laughing.

Hinata for a moment looked hurt before masking it and looking down, covering her shamed face.

Maddie looked over and quickly quit her chortling. "Oh no, Hina-honey, it's that he's GAY. He doesn't date GIRLS, period." Hinata's head shot up and she looked directly at Maddie, forgetting for a moment her 'blindness.'

"He's h-homosexual?"

One look at Hinata's shocked features sent Maddie doubling over in fits of giggles and Hinata swallowed loudly.

"Oh. Wow." Blushing, Hinata began to snicker. "That would make him hard to date, wouldn't it?"

Together the two girls laughed.

-End chapter-

Wow…it took hours to write, and hours to type. Fun. Please! Point out fallacies! I need to know where they are! Thanks!

ME


	7. Neji

A lot of people have been asking for another chapter of this fic, I was surprised, happy, and confused all at once. Does that even make sense? Ah well, whatever! Here's your next part!

ME

* * *

Three days after Hinata's team returned to Konoha, two days after the entire village had been told of the upset, Neji stalked away from the Hyuuga mansion in a flurry of rage and tightly reigned tears. He'd been to Hiashi's study to request that he join the search for Hinata, and had been shot down in the first ten seconds. No matter how he argued for his qualification, no matter what he posted as his experience, no matter how badly it hurt when he pleaded, Hiashi simply refused. Neji wanted to rip out the older man's teeth, and maybe his tonsils after that!

Grinding his teeth to ignore the growing lump in his throat, he stomped past the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Not seeing Ten Ten seated on one of it's several bar stools.

"Oi Neji, are you alright?" she asked, quickly swallowing the last of her broth. She thumbed around in her pouch for money, paid the stand owner and jogged to catch up to her furious teammate. "Oi! Neji! I'm talking to you!"

Neji, never slowing his steps, turned his head slightly to the left to glare at the insistent girl. Ten Ten gasped at his blunt anger, but she was a shinobi, and was taught long ago to look for micro-emotions, the emotions hid behind another. Neji was horribly upset.

"What's wrong? What happened?" 'Is it about Hinata?' were words that hung unsaid, but Neji slowed as if he'd heard them anyway. He stopped fully after half a dozen more steps. They were now in a slightly forested walking path many of Konoha's ninja's used for early morning runs, Neji turned to Ten Ten.

"He won't let me go." Neji muttered past the knots in his throat. Ten Ten looked confused though, so he tried to explain further, though it became almost difficult to concentrate past the itching behind his eyes signaling to him that he was tearing up again. "Hinata's search party. Hiashi wont let me help look for her…He wont…let me go."

Ten Ten briefly swam out of focus as the first unexpected tears began to fall. She reached out to him, but past putting a hand on his shoulder, Ten Ten did not quite know how to handle an upset Neji Hyuuga. Had it been Lee or Gai, she would have known what to do, a girl even, she would have known. But Neji wasn't like them. He was bottled up, and was usually the cause of hurts that Ten Ten had to deal with. It was almost frightening seeing him begin to breakdown right in front of her.

Neji's breathing was beginning to go erratic, his hands coming to his face as years' worth of guilt began to settling into his stomach as a heavy weight ghosted by thousands of butterflies, and then the butterflies were swarming upward and into his mouth, and Neji cried out, grabbing Ten Ten and pulling them both down at the base of a nearby tree.

There at the bottom of a Ginkgo tree, Neji crouched, wailing excuses and apologies to someone no longer present in a hurried apostrophe, all the while clinging to a rather uncomfortable Ten Ten, as if she were a blanket to guard him from the rest of the world in his distraught state. Just to make sure she didn't squash him, Ten Ten braced her hands onto the tree trunk to either side of where his head would have been, had he not wrapped his arms around her torso and began crying into her breasts.

Unknowing of what she should do, she stayed silent until he quieted and leaned onto the tree, eyes puffy, hair messy and at odd angles, and tear tracks smeared across his face. He couldn't bring himself to look at the weapons girl in the eyes, but his gaze did not waver when he gazed across the tearstains in her shirt.

"I'm sorry." He said at last.

"It's alright," Ten Ten replied softly. "Everyone needs a good cry now and then."

"Don't make excuses for me, it was a very stupid thing for me to do. Ninjas aren't supposed to cry."

"Everyone means everyone, genius boy."

Neither talked for several more minutes, and then Ten Ten pulled out from her pouch a Hankie and small water bottle. Wetting the Hankie, she reached toward a yielding Neji and gently washed his face to erase the signs of crying. " I see that we have two options here." She stated.

Neji finally met her eyes, curious. "Either convince Hiashi to let you go, or convince Gai and Hokage-sama an extended espionage-gathering training trip is in order." Neji's white eyes widened, which Ten Ten found inwardly comical with his mussed hair.

"Yes, training trip." He repeated, the barest of grins appearing on his face.

* * *

Yes, I know, short chapter, but it was rushed and it's kind of late. I hope you don't mind so much. I really enjoyed writing it! If you have and constructive criticism I would be happy to hear it. Yes, I also know Neji is probably horribly out of character, but I've only read the first three or four manga/ watched up to episode 12, so most all the information on him I know is learned from fanfics. Forgive me, please!

ME


	8. Garden

I never thought that the words to get me to write would be "What is taking you so long!" Honestly. GaNiorgasoline, something like that, really sent that to me in a review, and next thing I knew I was formulating this chapter and typing it out! Wow…Though I really should be cleaning as I'm leaving my house again for my third trip this summer, only this time for a vacation, which is a FAR cry from any camp.

ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

* * *

Hinata sat, grimly cringing at the red slashes across her aptitude test.

(One day earlier)

"You just have to take a test seeing how well you'd perform on the level of your peers; we have no idea where your skills lay, Miss Hyuuga." The nice brown-headed receptionist said to Hinata from behind her prim-looking wire-frame glasses. The willowy woman then whipped up a note-pad from her desk drawer and quickly wrote a note out, which would soon be known to Hinata as a Hall Pass. With Capital letters, even.

(End flashback)

She had taken the hardest test she had ever seen yesterday, almost as bad as the Chunin written exam. How would SHE know what Co or Ti or H2O is? She hadn't learned any code even _similar_ to that!

This new world had no ninja, this, she knew. Most everything she did know was obsolete in this, this…_place._ Her gentle fist technique was useless, not that she was much good anyway.

Heaving a sigh, Hinata folded her hands in her lap, and the door creaked on oiled hinges to her doom, and the school administrator walked in with a perplexed look, holding his copy of Hinata's test results. "Miss Hyuuga, your tests show that your Math and Biology skills are far above average, while your science is mediocre, and history are…well, awful. It's obvious from your math score that you need to be in a pre-calculus class. Your Biology section scores were that of a medical student, but your physics and chemistry were horrible! We'll just give you the Bio credit, but put you in an IPC class. And how can it be that you don't know any history at all?"

Hinata cringed, pulling her shoulders up, and poking her fingers together in her trademark nervous habit.

"Err, well, I suppose I had a l-limited education, but what I could learn I must have done my best in." Hinata stated, it was the only explanation she could offer that probably sounded half-believable. The man, Mr. Kopek, gave Hinata a flat look that simply said, "No, really, and was that nice?" before sighing himself, defeated.

"We'll just make a specialized schedule for you to get all your credits for graduation. Does it alter your daily schedule too much to come in early?"

Hinata thought back briefly to Maddie entering her room this morning at seven, to find Hinata awake and ready, listening to a radio, having roused from sleep at five, as usual.

"No."

"Right, well then, we'll pick up a visitor pass from Ms. Travenio for you to use the rest of today while we gather supplies for your, unique disadvantage." Mr. Kopek said, looking at Hinata's white eyes. Right, brail books, Maddie called them. Regular words were printed under the raised bumps, usually, so Hinata actually learned to read them already. A six-dot system might actually do very well on missions; she remembered thinking as she deciphered exactly how the code was used.

Mr. Kopek led Hinata out of the office and to Ms Travenio, who wrote out a visitor pass and up it onto Hinata's left breast pocket. A random male office aid was then instructed to lead Hinata to Maddie's second period class. He held Hinata's hand to do it, and she had to laugh when she saw the flush across his nose.

"W-what?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing."

(Lunchtime in the Garden.)

"Hina!" Gary gave a loud squeal to greet the dark-haired girl they'd come to know as Hina. Ripping forward from his seat in the memorial garden, the green-haired teen leapt at his new friend for a hug. Blushing, but retuning the enthusiastic hug, Hinata's head swiveled to look at the Garden she'd been brought to.

It was a simple niche in the side of the school building, the walls lined with green bushes and flowers near the red brick patio-type area sparsely decorated with benches to sit on. It was a quiet place, it seemed, and looking to the center of the garden, Hinata saw why.

Standing at the center of the garden, surrounded by more flowers, was a large rose granite rock, with only one smooth face, which itself held a poem engraved on the rock. Hinata looked down quickly, the poem speaking of the teens that had died far too soon while still attending the school she was now to go to. On the ground was a name. The brick she was looking at had a name on it and two dates.

"The bricks we're walking on have names and dates on them." Said Gary softly, realizing her attention wasn't on them.

"Really?"

"Yep, that's why this is our school's memorial Garden, it's a memorial to all the students who died while still coming here. It's a great place to eat lunch because it's much quieter than the cafeteria; the only downside is that you end up having to bring your lunch everyday! C'mon, I'll lead you over to where we are." Gary told her. Then, taking her hand he led Hinata to an area off to one side of the small garden where the group of kids she'd met at the party were sitting.

"KEVIN! GET OFF THE GENE!" screamed Maddie, not noticing the serious conversation that had started next to her. Running to the distressed brunette girl being squished by the blond blockhead, she yelled at the top of her voice again; "KEVIN!"

"Erm, pardon, but, what's happening?" Hinata asked, slightly miffed as the convenience of not answering questions about her white eyes began shifting to annoyance for having to pretend to be blind.

"Oh, Gene took Kevin's usually seat so you could have hers in the shade. He got a little mad about it and is trying to make her move again by sitting on her. Just let me say: it's not working." Smiling coyly, Gary finally brought them all the way to the foot of the fight.

Grunting and growling was coming from the tangled pair. Gene's long thin, floral skirt rumpling with Kevin's weight too unevenly spread across her lap, tipping both of them as they grappled for a better position to toss the other off the seat. Maddie stood close by, attempting with all her feeble strength to pry the heavier boy off the frail-like Gene, who was much thinner by a more-than-fair amount.

"Hinata, Do something!" cried a now panicking Maddie Dwight.

Gary looked appalled, "Hello, earth to Maddie, you realize that Hina's BLIND, right?"

"Well, yeah," Maddie said, upset, "But back when she was still in the hospital she told us she knew some martial arts!" Maddie then threw a pitiful look in Hinata's direction and began to plead for assistance.

Hinata was a little torn; she DID know the gentle fist technique, but she didn't want her new friends scared, either.

But Hinata quickly found a solution to fit that.

"Well, I actually said I was interested in Martial Arts, not that I knew them, but…" Reaching forward casually, Hinata grabbed Kevin's arms and slid her hand to about the crook of the elbow and found easily accessible pressure points to relax the hands. Then, she moved her hands again and locked his shoulders, then grabbed Kevin by the ear and led him up off Gene, now royally disheveled, and told him to sit at another bench so she could undo it all; All during Kevin's beautifully colorful squawks of indignity.

"Okay," said Gary, full agape, "Who else finds that incredibly terrifying but damn funny?" Gene and Maddie stretched their hands to the sky, and after another moment Kevin's joined them. Blushing and half ashamed, Hinata turned her face reflexively downward to inspect the brick deck-area and her shoes.

"And who agrees that overall it was DAMN COOL! HINATA YOU ROCK!" said Gene, suddenly standing and wrapping the other shy girl up in a hug. "I'll never bend to the strong society again! You HAVE to teach me!" Relief melted onto Hinata's features and she shyly returned the embrace.

"Well, it's s-simple enough, actually…" And the rest of lunch was a lesson on pressure points and what pressing them with a skilled hand could do. A few crude jokes flew around and while at first Hinata was affronted, she found herself giggling along to few all too quickly.

'This place isn't too bad at all!' thought Hinata.

* * *

Anyhow, I'm going to end the chapter there for now, as I don't really know where to continue it. Also, the timeline is going to skip around more. I think the next chapter will be set about a month from this one with Hinata all settled in and stutter probably gone, as it is too hard to deal with for long. My computer always screams at me for it. Hope you like!

ME


	9. Choir

So, after a HUGE fiction overhaul, I've finally got a place for this story to go, so I can AT LAST continue without all the confusion I had going on. See, it started on a whim, and accidentally became a favorite as far as readers of my fictions go. So, I had NADA for it. Now I can hopefully not wait a YEAR to update.

* * *

Friday, two weeks after her arrival into Nirvana Central High School and almost three weeks to the day of her arrival in the city of Little Buddha, NV, Hinata was being escorted from her seventh period English class to her eighth period Choir. Her escort, Jenny Andreas, a smart blond girl with a bubbly attitude was going on beside her about the latest book she'd read, about dragons. Hinata felt, for what felt like the first time, honestly content with her life as it was.

So used to being held to expectations by her father, or looked down upon by friends and family as weak willed and shy, Hinata breathed a sigh for freedom that she'd never experienced before. It hadn't been a fast sigh by any means, but gradually she'd felt the tension knots between her shoulder blades, that caused her endless troubles in training, slip loose and release as she spent more and more time in the loving care of her new world.

She hadn't stuttered in a week.

"So I HAD to call Caitlin, she's your Outdoor Sports and Rec. escort, by the way, who lent me the book, right then and demand the next book in the series! Oh! Hey, we're here! Hinata? Are you listening to me?" Hinata started, and realized that she was in fact at her classroom door, and her friend Kirsten was standing in the door waiting to take her to her place on the risers. Waving bye to Jenny and saying her hellos to Kirsten, Hinata entered the choir room.

Immediately she was surrounded by the chatter of the all-girl choir's plans for the weekend. It was comforting, somehow, too, that the everyday conversations of the young girls weren't about their latest/lamest missions. "So how's your day been, Hina?" asked Kirsten as they sat down.

"Nice, I guess, its sort of annoying that Maddie refuses to wake up and see me off to class at seven, but I guess that's just Maddie for you. I saw her at lunch, today." Hinata replied, very carefully looking forward.

Kirsten made a face, "I still can't believe you have that 7:30 AM class, what was it again?"

"US History, which is a much more interesting class than Nevada history."

"That's because Nevada doesn't HAVE any history." The pair laughed together for a moment before the bell rang and the director stepped up to her music stand to begin class.

"Alright, let's get started! First off, I want to talk about solos. We only have one for this choir, meaning that competition's going to be tough for it. Sopranos: I'm sorry, but more than likely, it will be going to an Alto, Soprano ones: Don't even try, because you will end up breaking your vocal cords, and we need them for that high e in Lux Eterna." Kirsten groaned with a pout, and Hinata, who was a second soprano, reached around and patted her back a couple times.

They then waited out the rest of the announcements about the concert they were practicing for, in a month and a half's time, including the after school rehearsal dates and dress details. After all this, they began their warm ups.

The group ran through Lux Eterna three times before Mrs. Russel was marginally happy with it. "Okay, so I'd say let's do a round of Le Enfant, but on account that we do have that solo for The Swan, we'll do that instead. Girls, line up right here beside the piano. I'll get the music."

Kirsten groaned once more, putting her head into her hands and her hands in her knees. Hinata reached out without thinking and petted her head again. Kirsten shot upwards, and swiftly snapped her head around to look Hinata fiercely in the eyes. "Try out, Hina."

"What? No way, I'm not good enough!" Hinata replied, turning her head in the direction of the try-outs. She listened to the girl, Samantha something, if she wasn't mistaken, and turned back to Kirsten. "See? Hear? She is much better than me!"

"No she isn't! She just sings from her diaphragm and you sing quietly! I'm not joking! Try out! Get at the back of that line or so HELP me…!" Kirsten hissed.

"Can the talking in the risers please stop? People are trying out for a solo, and that's very distracting," said Mrs. Russell, as she twisted around at the waist to face her students. Kirsten raised her hand.

"I was just telling Hinata that she should try out."

Mrs. Russell smiled that infuriating teacher-smile that stopped good kids in their tracks and made bad kids crack jokes. "That's an awesome idea, Kirsten, Hinata come join the line, even if you don't do well, it will give you some experience for a solo you may really want." She stepped over daintily and pulled Hinata into the line by her hand. "Here's the end of the line."

Hinata wanted to die from the heat permeating her cheeks. Her ears seemed to pop into overdrive, as she listened to all the other try outs, one by one. It began to wear on her nerves, the notes, as they repeated, and suddenly, sound was something that could be feared. Hinata risked a glance around the room and her eye caught the clock, she was two people away from trying out herself, and there was only five minutes of class left! There was hope! She might not have to go through with it! Hinata prayed to any and all spirits or ancestors or gods that may be listening to please not let her have to sing, alone, in front of so many people! She'd never even sung ONCE before joining the class!

Then, just as the girl ahead of her finished, the bell rang, and the door swung open with a whoop announcing Maddie's entrance. Hinata took a drinking breath of air and heaved it all out in one go. The tension all fell away, and she almost began dancing around the piano to get to her things and leave.

"Oh hello, Maddie, Hinata was about to try out for the class solo!" Mrs. Russell said over the noise of all the choir girls leaving, and Hinata's stomach tumbled out from her middle to float somewhere about a mile below the school.

"REALLY? CAN I LISTEN, HINA?" Maddie asked, hurtling over a chair and attacking Hinata with a vice-like hug to the dark-haired girl's arm, her body crouching so she could fit her head neatly onto the shorter Hinata's shoulder. Sighing, Hinata placed her chin on Maddie's hair and muttered curses to herself in Japanese, English, and the coarse Mandarin that she'd learned on an escort mission to far to the west that Kiba, Shino, and Kurenai-sensei didn't think she'd picked up. "What was that? I didn't hear you."

"I said, I actually kind of don't want to try out, I'm no good." She admitted, shifting away from Maddie. Maddie gawped.

"Hinata, don't you ever say that!" Maddie exclaimed. "You always try! Always! I don't care if you look stupid, school's out for the day and most your class is gone anyway! If it makes you feel better, any time I try out for choirs they kick me out and say don't come back. You're definitely better than me." Hinata, taken aback from the odd, somewhat awkward outburst and Kirsten's furious agreements, bit the inside of her cheek.

"Hina, you have a wonderful voice, the only reason you don't think you're good is because you can't hear it. Sing loud, sing proud, and try out! For me?" asked Mrs. Russell. The sometimes childish teacher brought up her hands in a pleading gesture and opened her great blue eyes wide and wobbled a lip, then remembered that Hinata was blind, and added a pathetically humorous whimper. "I'm begging here, just try I'm not going to hold it against you if you do badly or anything!"

Knowing defeat quite intimately, Hinata knew she was beaten. "Okay, get the music."

Maddie squealed and ran to the risers, thumping her hands on her jeans and grinning like a loon. Kirsten and she squealed together and huddled in their own little pod of joyful energy. Hinata didn't even need to look at them to know that the pair were congratulating each other on their joint victory to make Hinata go though with tryouts.

"Are you…?" asked Mrs. Russell, hands at the ready on the stereo buttons, hovering over the glowing green play.

Hinata swallowed, and glanced at her hands. And caught a glimpse of bright purple nail polish that Maddie insisted she wear three days ago. For some reason, this brought her to a quick thought about Maddie, and her strange, unconditional support.

Hinata took a deep breath in, feeling all her tension and worry gather in her chest, making it shake with quaking vibrations set off in fear.

She closed her eyes, and remembered the music.

She exhaled, and let her mind go silent, and there to her side she felt Maddie grinning.

Fears abolished, she replied, "Yes."

The music began, and surprising herself, Hinata found her notes to be clear like bells, vibrating her chest along her breastbone, and resonating through her mouth. Her diction was good too, holding little of her slight accent. Listening to herself, Hinata marveled. The solo was easy enough; she _had_ heard it fifteen times because of all the other girls trying out.

Getting used to the thought of singing alone, rather than in a group, Hinata tried using the 'diaphragm' that Kirsten always harped about. Standing a little straighter, Hinata took right hand right under her ribs and felt it. Discretely she sent just a tiny thread of chakra from her middle to the diaphragm and her voice jumped in volume.

Opening her eyes, Hinata gradually increased the thread in size until she could hear her voice rebound in the room like a speaker, and then, drifted quietly into silence signaling the end; yet reluctant to let it do so.

She turned to face her two friends, who had slack jawed faces and stupefied looks across their eyes. "Buh-huh-whuh?" was Maddie's spectacular commentary.

"Okay, 'not good' how, now, Hinata?" asked Mrs. Russell, walking over from the stereo, an grin just resisting to surface. "Because I don't know about you three, but since _I_ get to choose who gets the solo and you don't so it doesn't matter what you're thinking anyway, I think I'm going have to say you have the solo. That was so amazing Hinata!" and Mrs. Russell wrapped her up in a hug fit for the stereotypical crazy aunt.

Maddie and Kirsten, regaining mobility, leaped up too. "That was AWESOME!" shouted Kirsten, to Maddie's furious nodding.

"I've never, I mean, wow! Hinata, how could you say you aren't good? I'm not kidding, girl that was fu-er-freaking sweet!" Hinata blushed as Kirsten and Maddie began to quip back and forth over the 'amaze-ocity' of Hinata's performance.

"Do I really get the solo, Mrs. Russell? Not Samantha?" asked Hinata.

"Samantha's voice is beautiful, Hinata, I know, but the piece we're singing is an ode to lovers. She has a voice to rough-and-tumble beautiful for it to work really well with the piece. If it were a folk song I'd say differently, but it isn't, so I can't just leave it at her and be done with it." Hinata marveled at her teacher, amazed that she hadn't even thought of it, really it should have been obvious. Look at all the different types of camouflage a ninja could wear, forest, sand, black, white, you had to pick your clothes for what mission you had, didn't you? It really wasn't any different, was it?

Hinata smiled so widely that she thought her face was going to crack in two, "I did do pretty good, didn't I?" Laughing and giddy with excitement, Hinata, Kirsten, and Maddie all left the room to catch their rides home.

* * *

Hinata and Maddie were still giggling about it at dinner that night, and Mr. and Mrs. Dwight were beginning to wonder if their pair of girls were sniffing inappropriate things to sniff. The four family members were all gathered around the table, Marie and Darrel on both ends, and the girls centered on either side of the rectangular table, when the spontaneous bouts of giggling finally pushed Darrel off the edge of curiosity.

"Okay, I give, what has you two so happy tonight?" He questioned, leaning forward in his chair. "You've been laughing like crazy people all day!" This only caused Maddie to laugh harder, half-chewed salad displayed rather messily from her mouth; head tilted back and hands held up limply by her shoulders.

"MADDIE! Swallow! Swallow!" Marie Dwight yelled at her hysterical daughter.

"Maddie, I don't want to see half-chewed salad," Hinata choked out, covering her mouth as she licked mashed potato from the corner of her lips. Maddie gave her sister a thumbs up and closed her mouth, hand clasped tightly over her lips to help in avoiding spitting out masses of dressing or a stray leaf. "I got the solo for choir, Mr. and Mrs. Dwight, that's why we're laughing, I'm sorry if we've caused any confusion…"

The two adults blinked rapidly for a few moments before Mr. Dwight's eyes lit up with pride and Mrs. Dwight stated calmly, "Congrats, Hina. When's the concert? I would really like to attend to watch you perform." Mr. Dwight grinned.

"Yes, dear, do you know the date? I need to shuffle any appointments I may have."

Hinata's laughter stopped. She flicked her head from side to side, looking at her hosts. "You…want to come? You…want to see me perform? You…Would you really do that for me?" Hinata's mind tripped to looking at flash images of Hiashi and her mother, neither of whom had ever tried very hard to come to things Hinata wanted felt important, not even her graduation of the ninja academy. She once asked them to go on a picnic with her during the height of cherry blossom viewing season, and Hiashi told her it was a frivolous waste of time, especially for her, who needed extra training compared to everyone else. She ended up going alone.

"Of course, sweetie, why wouldn't we?" Asked Mrs. Dwight while reaching over and giving Hinata's cheek a quick pinch.

Hinata flushed pink, "I don't want to trouble you if you already have plans, is all."

"Honey, you are more important than any meeting I could possibly have planned. It's as simple as that."

Hinata gazed at Mrs. Dwight very hard for a second, trying to judge if what she was saying was true, and upon seeing the soft look of loving conviction in the older woman's eyes, Hinata for a moment didn't know what to think.

Briefly she remembered her real mother's mirror-like eyes that never seemed anything other than apathetic, the image transposed over the one of such loving care that Mrs. Dwight was giving her, and Hinata felt the most hated prickle behind her eyes beginning. Burying her face into the heel of her palms, Hinata took a few shaky, panting breaths before the tears came. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much…You have no idea how much that means to me!" she cried into her hands.

A pair of strong, thick arms wrapped around her shoulders, and enveloped her with a vanilla musky scent. Mr. Dwight rocked her back and forth, whispering nonsense in her ears, but it was so soft and pretty that she really didn't care that she didn't understand the words, all that mattered at that moment was that someone in the world really seemed to be proud of her.

Someone was _proud_ of _her_, and it made her _so incredibly _happy. So happy she was crying.

Later that night as she and Maddie were brushing their teeth in Maddie's bathroom, decorated in various blues and coral shades, and everything was shaped like a shell, including the sink, Maddie asked Hinata if she'd like to sing for the band.

* * *

DONE! HA HA! FINISHED! I at last finish the chapter of DOOM! But on that note, I'd really like to seriously ask any of you people who still care about this fiction if anyone would like to be a beta for it. I really need someone to bounce ideas off of and such. You'd get chapters ahead of time, and then tell me where the rough/confusing sections are so I can fix them. Also, if anyone would like to submit an idea for a band name for the group, that would be nice. 


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